


To Fly

by Snow



Category: Aladdin (1992)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Community: au_bingo, Female Character of Color, Female Protagonist, Gen, inventions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-27
Updated: 2010-06-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 07:25:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jasmine just wants to run away and join the crew of an airship, but first she needs to prove herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Fly

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt Other: Steampunk for au_bingo
> 
> Many thanks to Llwyden for the help.

Jasmine kept her eyes on the ground as she walked out of her father's building, into the walled courtyard that was attached. Her father was paranoid about her safety and for all that Jasmine wanted to shout that she was sixteen and quite able to take care of herself, he thought his status as an inventor put her at risk. To be fair, he _was_ the best in the city, but it was still ridiculous, the way he forbid her to leave their property, even in disguise.

The high walls around the courtyard meant that the only interesting direction to look was up, but Jasmine knew that if she did that she'd soon get caught in watching the airships soar around overhead, and she had work to do today. She made clucking noises as she approached her bird cage. The doves cocked their heads to look at her.

"There there," she said, peering into the cage until she spotted the mechanical bird at the bottom of the cage. She opened the cage, picked up the mechanical bird to wind, then set it on the perch next to the other birds. The dove closest turned its head towards the mechanical creature, then quickly away.

Jasmine sighed. If she could just get the bird to fly like it should, then she could take her invention to an airship captain, who could use it to carry messages. Jasmine just knew she could find someone willing to trade her knowledge of a mechanical bird for a spot on his crew. As it was, everyone knew her father well enough to know he wouldn't be happy if they took her on, and if she didn't introduce herself as his daughter then they didn't believe her when she said she could help.

If she had a physical creation, something that would help the airship, then she wouldn't have to wait until her father declared her old enough, by which time she would have been cooped up another three years. Of course, if he had his way then she'd stay on the ground forever, just working in a workshop, like he did.

She hadn't managed to make any of her attempted mechanical birds fly yet.

Jasmine removed one of the living doves from the cage, to let it free and watch its flight.

She was staring at the bird's flight, willing herself not to be distracted by the airships, when she felt something hit her shoulder. She moved to flick it off, when she turned to look at it. It was just one of the seeds from a Maple tree, but when she had flicked it, it had flown up an inch or two.

"That's it!" she said, grabbing the maple seed, the samara. If she could make something based off of this she wouldn't have the gear complications or the need for a greater power supply that she kept running into when she attempted to make her ornithopter.

Jasmine waited for her father to go to sleep that night before she tiptoed into his workshop. In one hand she held her prototype mechanical bird, in the other one of the many samaras that were falling these days.

She spent an hour that night running tests on the samara and figuring out the weight distribution, as well as where she could put the engine and how much surface area her creation would need. She still had a ways to go before she could think about making a working creation, before she could make her imagined samaracopter a reality, but it was getting late and Jasmine didn't want to burn so much oil that her father, or his horrid assistant, Jafar, would notice.

Still, before she left the workshop she made a simple mockup of the samaracopter. It had no gears or engine, but when she dropped it it fell just like the samara itself. Jasmine visualized getting it to work fully, and grinned. She was going to fly, and soon.

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate comments, including constructive criticism.


End file.
